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specialist networking products with quality support - Dovado | BearExtender | Electric Imp | Popcorn Hour | FAVI EntertainmentMon, 21 Apr 2014 11:42:22 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4The Dovado firmware timelinehttp://blog.movingwifi.com/firmware-timeline/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/firmware-timeline/#commentsFri, 07 Jun 2013 11:10:49 +0000http://3genuity.com/?p=82We are often asked why we have chosen to sell the Dovado range of mobile broadband routers from among the many brands of 3G and 4G routers on the market. There are several factors that make the Dovado products stand out for us, including the high level of customer satisfaction, Dovado’s proactive style of customer support and, not least, the frequency of their firmware updates to extend the range of supported modems and introduce many new exciting features.

This (very long) article aims to comprehensively document the rapid and feature-rich progression of Dovado firmware since the UMR’s launch in June 2008. The most recent firmware releases are listed first.

NAS and FTP server – use the extra USB port (where available) to share USB disk or memory storage across the network (5.0.5)

Auto configuration – automatically selects APN and login credentials based on SIM. This means that in many cases, customers can get their router working with their modem straight out of the box without any configuration. (4.3.0)

Troubleshooting wizard points the user in the direction of what might be causing a lack of internet connectivity (4.3.0)

A list of common APNs for many countries are available for selection (4.1.5)

v7.2.1, 9 April 2014

Available for TINY, DOMA, GO, PRO

Fixed issue with Dynamic DNS introduced by upgrade to 7.2.0.

Resolved connect issue with Option HSO modems

v7.2.0, 7 April 2014

Available for TINY, DOMA, GO, PRO
This major release introduced the modem redundancy feature for the PRO along with several other significant enhancements. The user interface on the router is now more dynamic with greater feedback on button clicks and a red warning in the status bar when a restart is required.Specifically for the PRO

v7.1.0, 16 September 2013

Available for TINY, DOMA, GO, PRO

New Features

Internet Scheduler, a way to control what times users can access the Internet. The router will still be online and accessible from outside (along with respond to SMS commands) but clients will not be able to access the Internet. Available on the DOVADO TINY/DOMA/GO models under INTERNET->SCHEDULER page. On the DOVADO PRO model, it is integrated into the AUTOMATION pages.

New SMS command “Internet On” and “Internet Off”, along with API and Web UI.

Fixes & Enhancements

Groups of days can now be created and used in (Home & Internet) Automation (PRO model)

Home Automation Events/Aliases/Groups can now be edited on the DOVADO PRO

Web User Interface (UI) has now been widened. Clear browser’s cache in case of issues (Ctrl+F5)

v7.0.0, 10 July 2013

Available for TINY, DOMA, GO, PRO
The highlights of this major release are the new VPN functionality and the ability to initiate a Live Upgrade via SMS. The VPN client has implications for much of the routers’ functionality. As is natural with such a major development, a few unforeseen bugs are inevitable. These are ironed out in a steady stream of subsequent bugfix releases. The VPN setup is explained in this video:

New Features

Embedded VPN (PPTP) client with optional 128-bit encryption, located on the VPN->PPTP page.

By default, entire internal network will be routed through VPN tunnel.

Possible to limit use of PPTP tunnel to only a certain number of devices as opposed to all. The rest use the Direct Internet in parallel.

A “block” option is available in order to restrict Internet access for the network clients in case the PPTP tunnel drops. This will prevent any sensitive traffic to spill out on the Internet.

Port Forwarding rules are available for both the Direct Internet as well as PPTP Client interfaces, offering great flexibility.

VPN’s IP and Status info/command available in the API as well as the web menu’s Status Overview Bar.

SMS commands/notifications now include VPN IP address.

Status Overview Bar can be disabled in the SYSTEM->REMOTE MANAGEMENT page.

New SMS command: UPGRADE. This will instruct the router to fetch latest firmware from Dovado servers.

Added “upgrade”-command to API.

An undocumented new feature appears to be quicker fail-over from WAN to USB by having the USB modem in a state of readiness while idle.

Please Note: Connection Tracker is currently disabled when the VPN client has been enabled. This will likely be addressed in a future release.

4G USB Modems added

Huawei E3276 Singtel (also supporting Bridge Mode)

Huawei E3276 V2 Optus – TDD/FDD (also supporting SMS and Bridge Mode)

SMS now working on newer generation of Huawei E3276 firmware

Fixes & Enhancements

Cleanup on the GUI (Graphical User Interface). Re-arranged the menu for improved structure. Manual has been updated accordingly.

Improved functionality and enhancements on existing features.

Hungarian language added in wizard and troubleshooting.

A few cosmetic changes appear with 7.0.0, namely:

the left-hand sidebar has been capitalised completely, appearing a bit SHOUTY when you first notice, but you soon get used to it

The DNS page has been moved from SYSTEM->DNS to INTERNET->DNS

v6.2.7, 14 May 2013

Available for 4GR (final release), TINY, DOMA, GO, PRO (first available release)
Two fixes in this release:

Resolved speed issue with Tele2 and 4GR traffic origin from Wifi.

Resolved connection issuue with Huawei E3276.

v6.2.6, 6 May 2013

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA, GO, PRO (never available as a download)
This release included three improvements:

Fix sunrise and sunset from drifting. (4GR)

Upgrade to Google Maps v3. (4GR,PRO)

Fix sending SMS in bridge mode.

v6.2.5, 22 April 2013

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA, GONew Feature: added general support for Huawei HiLink USB modems through Dovado LIM (Limited Internet Mode). Capabilities such as SMS, UPnP and Bridge Mode are not supported by LIM. Port Forwarding (in LIM) is also limited to a total of 15 entries. The Huawei E353 (HiLink) is a case in point. Dovado spent months and months working to get this awkward modem supported on their routers. I’d wager there are few other 3G routers, on which it’ll work.

One bugfix: fix for Daylight Saving Time along with sunrise triggers in Home Automation (4GR)

v6.2.2, 26 February 2013

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA, PRO (initial factory release)
Hard on the heels (same day) of 6.2.1, this release Fixed a Live Firmware Upgrade error, preventing 6.2.1 detecting that there is a new firmware available. It was the firmware installed on the first production run of the PRO (release 6 May 2013), but there was never a 6.2.2 download available for that model.

v6.2.1, 26 February 2013

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA
Just one bugfix in this one: fixes sed error for SMS

v6.2.0, 20 February 2013

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA
This relatively major release sees the arrival of firmware Live Upgrade

New features

Live firmware upgrade: router checks for new firmware updates. Firmware will be downloaded straight from Dovado’s servers.

New firmware SMS/E-Mail notifications can be sent to you from the router whenever there’s a new firmware.

Checking of new firmware will be done randomly once a day.

System Log available in the SYSTEM->LOG sub-menu. Provides you a detailed list of events in your router since powering on/restart.

10GB option added as notification interval in the INTERNET->TRAFFIC sub-menu.

Signal Strength also displayed in “dBm” in the MODEM->MODEM STATUS sub-menu.

(4GR) Added support for “Rising Sun” and “UPM” Self-Learning Home Automation devices.

(4GR) Scheduled Home Automation events now working in Bridge Mode

Ten 3G modems added

Huawei E368

Huawei E3131 (Orange)

Huawei K3773 HiLink

Onda TM201

Vodafone K3571-Z

Vodafone K3772-Z

ZTE MF190

ZTE MF190S (Etisalat)

ZTE MF192 (T-mobile)

ZTE MF667

v6.1.5, 18 December 2012

Available for GO (initial factory release)
This firmware was never available as a download.

v6.1.4, 12 November 2012

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA
Eleven modems added in this release, most of them 4G/LTE including the first offering from UK operator Everything Everywhere (EE)4G/LTE modems

Alcatel One Touch L100V

Huawei E392 (EE UK & Orange Luxemburg)

Huawei E397 (Telus Canada)

Onda MT8205 (Telecom Italia Mobile)

Quanta 1K3M (Mobily Saudi Arabia)

Vodafone K5006-Z

ZTE MF821D (O2)

ZTE MF821D (Telenor Denmark & Norway)

ZTE MF823

3G modems

Huawei E3231

Huawei E3256

v6.1.3, 26 September 2012

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA
Just one fix in this one: Fixed connection issue with Huawei E3276.

v6.1.2, 25 September 2012

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA
One bugfix in this release: Fixed an issue when updating Dynamic DNS towards Loopia.

One 4G/LTE modem support updated and the world’s first category 4 LTE modem (150Mbps) added:

20/40MHz WLAN selection now moved to WLAN SETTINGS page (ADVANCED page is now removed)

Fixed 3G-only mode for certain Sierra Wireless modems

NAS: UTF-8 now possible choice for filename encoding (4GR)

Fixed sunrise scheduling on certain devices in Home Automation (4GR)

Modems

Huawei E369

Vodafone K3805-Z

Vodafone K3806

ZTE MF691 (T-Mobile)

Huawei E173 (Turkcell)

Anydata U90 (Net1 CDMA modem)

v6.1.0, 1 August 2012

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA
A longer than normal gap between firmware releases, but there is plenty of new functionality in this one, namely:

As of firmware 6.1.0, DOVADO routers now contain a built in help function

Automatic Detection of time zone and summer/winter time settings (based on SIM card)

4G/LTE Manual Frequency Selection: it is now possible to select which 4G frequency band the modem should connect on.

SMS capability on 4G/LTE modems from Huawei, ZTE and Bandrich

API Access via LAN is now possible on Dovado TINY and Dovado DOMA

API allows you to both send and receive SMS’s in UTF-8 encoding

API has 2 new SMS commands, “sms sendtxt” and “sms recvtxt”

SMS has been enabled in Bridge Mode

Fixes/improvements

Speed improvements with certain 4G operators following changes within their networks (4GR)

Improved WLAN (4GR)

Support for lots of new modems

Huawei E188 (Optus)

Huawei E398 (Orange Moldova)

Huawei E398 (Swisscom)

Huawei E1823

Huawei E3131

Option BEEMO

ZTE MF190J (TMN)

ZTE MF665C (TMN)

ZTE MD182

ZTE MF192

ZTE MF626i

ZTE MF668A

Bandrich BandLuxe C501

Vodafone K3571-Z

v6.0.1, 23 April 2012

Available for 4GR, DOMA
Includes a few bugfixes, namely:

Fix for sending SMS via API (4GR)

Fix for NTP when using Ethernet WAN (4GR)

Fix power LED when receiving SMS (DOMA)

v6.0.0, 10 April 2012

Available for 4GR, TINY, DOMA (initial release)
This major release heralds the arrival of bridge mode, available on many, but not all, supported modems. Also included are some more stability improvements for the 4GR WiFi and the ability to configure with a blank APN.

New modems supported

ONDA MT835UP Nero (3G)

Sierra Wireless 313U (AT&T) (4G/LTE)

ZTE MF821 (4G/LTE)

ZTE MF190 (3G)

ZTE MF656 (3G)

ZTE MF652 (3G)

ZTE MF192 (3G)

ZTE MF668A (3G)

ZTE MF626 (A1) (3G)

v5.0.17, 26 March 2012

Available TINY (upgrade/rescue utility only)
No BIN file was released with this firmware as the resolution included required any TINY to be flashed with a new bootloader using the Rescue part of the utility. The issue fixed is a power-cycling condition affecting some, but not all of these modems: ZTE 110, ZTE 190 and Option Icon 505. See separate blog article for further details.

v5.0.16, 28 February 2012

Available for 3GN (sunset release), 4GR, TINY
This was the final firmware developed for the Dovado 3GN.Resolutions (4GR only)

General stability improvements

WLAN stabilized

Support for new Home Automation wall-plug Fuhaote (pictured right, Kjell & Company prod number 50219)

Also resolved:

Detailed Dynamic DNS status codes in GUI

Improved speed on ZTE MF680

Improved speed on Novatel Wireless MC545

New modems supported:

ZTE MF880 (4G/LTE)

ZTE MF820 (4G/LTE with CSL Hong Kong)

Huawei E392 (4G/LTE)

Quanta 1KRZ (4G/LTE)

OPTION ICON 711 (3G)

Vodafone (Huawei) K3770 (3G)

Sierra Wireless 305 (AT&T) (3G)

v5.0.15, 2 January 2012

Available for 3GN, TINYNew 3G modems

ZTE MF180 (BOB/Austria) – no SMS

Nokia CS-18 – no SMS

Enhancements & Fixes

Improved authentication for Bigpond 4G with Sierra Wireless 320U modem (to be perfected at later stage)

New features

New profile optimized for Telstra / Bigpond, manually selectable on the SYSTEM->NETWORK SETTINGS page, improving speeds in both directions by adjusting ﻿﻿﻿﻿MTU/MRU settings.

v5.0.12, 6 October 2011

v5.0.11, 23 September 2011

Available for 3GN, 4GR, TINY4G/LTE (Long Term Evolution) – support for an additional USB modem for 4G/LTE: the ZTE MF820D.

Auto-configuration – more countries added. Dovado say:

we understand that there are lots of MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) we might not support (we did our best here!), but the big players have been added in. Additional countries will be added as we expand our sales tentacles across the globe.

v5.0.6, 29 June 2011

Available for 3GN, TINY
We have neither archive nor details of this firmware release.

v5.0.5, 20 June 2011

Available for 4GR4G / LTE (Long Term Evolution) – integrated support for the Huawei E398 USB LTE modem.3G / DC-HSPA+ (42Mbps 3G) – updated support for the Huawei E372 USB modem to reach higher speeds. The Huawei E398 also supports DC-HSPA+ (42Mbps).NAS/FTP Server – the 4GR now allows you to insert a USB Hard Disk Drive (HDD), pen-drive or Micro SD card (inserted in USB modem) and serve out the storage across the LAN. You can then share your storage space across your home network as a regular network share and/or as an internal FTP site. The storage is only accessible from within the home network, and not from offsite. Typical transfer rates are 2-3MB/s (16-24Mbps) on the “SMB” (network share) mode, and a bit higher on the FTP mode. Tip: You can also store your GPS position logs straight onto a connected storage device for those offline occasions. Simply use the loopback address (127.0.0.1) when defining the FTP server.

Auto-Configuration, more countries added – basically allows you to insert the MODEM into the router and the router will then auto-detect the country (MCC- Mobile Country Code) & operator (MNC – Mobile Network Code) from the SIM card. From there on, our internal list of known APN’s residing in the router will be paired up with the MCC + MNC, and attempt to connect to the Internet.

User Management – capability to add more users and tick which service privileges they have within the router. The available services include:

WLAN authentication – configuration page has been revamped. New rules from Wi-Fi Alliance stipulate that 802.11N should only run in combination with WPA2/AES encryption. We’ve reworked the page so that the selection is based on the current guidelines as there are heightened security recommendations for 802.11N.

Advanced 802.11n settings – selection of 20 or 40MHz bandwidth is now permitted in the 802.11n WLAN environment. Note: using a 20MHz bandwidth will allow improved interoperability in a mixed 802.11b/g and 802.11n environment of wireless clients. A 40MHz bandwidth is better utilised in an all-802.11n environment to maximise speed throughput.

Support for Short SMS numbers – typically used to check credit balance, communicating with Customer Services, etc.

Support (including SMS support) for the following modems has been added:

Huawei E173

Huawei E1752

Huawei E1752 (Movistar Spain)

Nokia CS-17

ZTE MF112

v4.2.5, 21 July 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN, 4GR
This release adds support for the Onda MW823UP modem (Wind Italy).

v4.2.4, 5 July 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN, 4GR (initial release)
This release adds support for the ZAIN modem ZTE MF633 and updates support for the D-Link DWM-156 modem to handle latest modem firmware. There is also a bugfix on the Home Automation Scheduler.

v4.2.3, 22 June 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN
This release adds Finland to the list of countries included in the dropdown APN database and fixes a few issues, namely:

Fix for self-learning non-dimming NEXAs

Huawei E122 now operates in full power mode

The “all” group in Home Automation rebuilds itself when a new device is added through the API

Improved Wake-On-LAN

Fixed Bandluxe C100s/C120 running with PIN code

v4.2.2, 3 June 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN
A quick fix release to deal with a cosmetic error on Home Automation (Manual Control)

v4.2.1, 1 June 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN
This release brings support for 8 new modems plus SMS support for 2 modems already supported (ZTE’s MF662 and MF668). The new modems supported are:

BandLuxe C321

Huawei E1752

Huawei UMG181

ProMate eGo.5

T-Mobile 120 (ZTE MF626 rebrand)

Vodafone K4505-Z

ZTE MF102

ZTE MF110

Other fixes/enhancements are as follows:

PIN code issue resolved on Nokia USB modems

Fixed Home Automation SMS and case sensitivity (now you can send “bedroom on” as well as “BeDrOOm on”)

Added support for adding Everflourish and Proove devices via the API

v4.2.0, 19 May 2010

Available for UMR

This major firmware release includes a number of new Home Automation features, SMS developments that enable SMS functionality on “difficult” Sierra modems and support for six new modems.
The new Home Automation features are as follows:

You can now group appliances under aliases, e.g. you could use this to control appliances on a room-by-room basis

Improved settings protection in the event of power failure while saving settings

The six new modems supported are:

D-Link DWM-156

Option 505m

STC-U720 (Sweden Telecom)

Vodafone K3765-Z

Anydata 555c (MTS India)

Epivally SEC-8089 (TATA Photon India)

v4.1.6, 9 April 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN
This was a bugfix release, resolving an issue with the Network Time Protocol (NTP) clock.

v4.1.5, 25 March 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN
This firmware update introduced a pre-configured database of APN settings selected via dropdown lists of countries and mobile operators in the configuration wizard and modem settings screen. The countries included in the APN database are:

Canada

Denmark

Ireland

Italy

Kuwait

Norway

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Sweden

Syria

UK

USA

There were a couple of bugfixes in this release, namely:

a fix for an issue related to Sirf mode on the Globalsat BU-353 GPS

and a fix for a problem, where the Connection Tracker wasn’t executing “Reboot and Redial” correctly upon failure

Two new modems were added in this release:

Novatel Wireless U998/MC998D (Bell Canada)

Sierra Wireless 309

v4.1.4, 1 April 2010

Available for 4GR (initial release)
This was possibly the initial factory release of firmware for the 4GR. We have neither archive nor details of it.

v4.1.3, 19 February 2010

Available for UMR, 3GN

This was a bugfix release, resolving the following issues:

Remote management stability

Restored support for the Novatel modems MC930D and MC950D

MTU problem for Option modems

v4.1.2, 10 February 2010

Available for UMR
The focus of this firmware release was to provide SMS functionality for modems that prove challenging in this respect.

11 more modems fully supported, namely:

4G-System XSStick W14

Alcatel One Touch X030

Alcatel One Touch X060s

Huawei E122 (3 Denmark)

Huawei E182e (recommend USB modem firmware update)

Huawei E1820 (recommend USB modem firmware update)

Longcheer WM71

Sony Ericsson MD300

Sony Ericsson MD400

Vodafone K4505

ZTE MF662 (OTE Greece, 21Mbps down, 5.76Mbps up)

You can select your preferred SMS access method: SIM / Modem / Auto. The recommendation if you’re having SMS problems is to both SIM and Modem modes explicitly and test by sending an SMS.

Choose the Google map type (Hybrid, Satellite, Terrain, Road) to use with GPS

Sunrise/Sunset event scheduling for home automation. Your geographical position is either entered manually or detected automatically if GPS is enabled. Sunrise/Sunset times are displayed on the Status Overview if position is known.

You can now randomise the minutes component of scheduled home automation, for more realistic anti-burglary impact

Verified to work with the DovTelCon (Dovado Tellstick Control) API program developed by Daniel Buecke (Thanks Daniel!!) This Windows system bar utility allows you to quickly take control of all your home automation devices locally or from remote.

With 4.1.x firmware, Dovado now also provide a Windows-based utility to apply the firmware upgrade from your PC without having to login to the browser-based configuration inteface.

When enabling Remote Management, you can now specify hostnames in your white-list as opposed to just numerical IP addresses. This will be useful if you use Dynamic DNS at the remote management location.

You can now access the API features from the Internet as opposed to just from the LAN. You can enable/disable the API features which can be accessed over the internet.

You can view which LAN->UPNP ports are in use

You can now disable ping responses to ICMP requests from the Internet. Available from SYSTEM->NETWORK SETTINGS

You can specify a Network Time Protocol server (NTP)

Daylight savings is an option on the NTP settings.

If you send a Connection Up SMS command you get more info if the Connection Tracker is enabled

multiple VPN sessions behind the UMR are now supported

Navigation between setup pages has been optimised in speed terms.

v4.0.4, 16 November 2009

Available for 3GN (initial release)

v4.0.2, 22 September 2009

Available for UMR

NOTE: Improved stability. Corrected a major issue where UMR can ‘crash’ and remain unresponsive until a manual power restart has taken place.

Corrected an error message on the INTERNET->WAN PORT SETTINGS page when switching between manual and DHCP settings.

Support for Sierra Wireless Compass 597 (Sprint) added

Limited support for Huawei E182e

Added ‘None’ as alternative to authentication method on the MODEM->PPP page (may speed up connection time)

IP address is displayed in ‘Connection Up’ SMS notifications

v4.0.1, 7 September 2009

Available for UMR

support for 5 new modems added

TEST EMAIL button (for testing outgoing SMTP mail server).

GPS position now includes additional digits (seconds) for improved positioning accuracy

UPNP has been corrected.

Active FTP method has been implemented.

Port Forwarding beyond port 65000 now visible in GUI.

Disconnect/Connect user interface button working on all UMTS modems within MODEM->MODEM STATUS page.

ZTE modems compatibility improved.

Home Automation scheduler

Support for blank spaces between words within APN field.

v4.0, 10 August 2009

Available for UMR

Support for the very latest “HSPA+” modems, 9 new modems added

GPS tracking (requires GPS dongle)

Wake-on-LAN

Telnet API for SMS, HTTP and Home Automation

Internet Traffic Consumption notification via e-mail

Monthly traffic counter reset date can be adjusted (default was first day of month).

Traffic counter can be reset manually.

Entire configuration can be saved/restored.

SMS Phonebook, practical for saving phone numbers when sending out an SMS.

v1.2, 6 August 2008

v1.0, June 2008, Dovado UMR launched

Available for UMR (initial release)

Support for 5 modems included in the initial release.

To download the latest firmware for any Dovado product, visit their firmware page.
]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/firmware-timeline/feed/1Parcel Motel: quicker cheaper shipping for Irish customershttp://blog.movingwifi.com/parcel-motel/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/parcel-motel/#commentsFri, 07 Jun 2013 11:01:09 +0000http://blog.movingwifi.com/?p=1146We use the Royal Mail AirSure service to deliver goods to the Republic of Ireland. Royal Mail aims to deliver AirSure items throughout Western Europe in just two working days after posting. Sometimes they manage to do this, but quite frequently Royal Mail deliveries to Ireland seem to be inexplicably delayed, sometimes for up to a couple of weeks. Very frustrating for customers at the receiving end.

I used to live in Co. Clare, so I’ve experienced this frustration at both ends. The AirSure tracking rarely sheds any light on these mysterious delays, typically stating that the item has progressed overseas, when it’s actually stuck somewhere in the Royal Mail system and has not been passed to An Post yet. Afterwards Royal Mail can offer no specific explanation for the delay and no compensation is available for delays on AirSure items.

How it works

Parcel Motel now offers Irish consumers a cheaper and more reliable alternative for online deliveries. The Parcel Motel shipping process would work as follows:

Parcel Motel’s Co. Antrim depot will receive and sign for delivery, usually on the next working day and quickly ship the item to one of many pickup locations throughout Ireland; (you will have selected your most convenient one)

you receive an SMS notification when your goods have arrived at your local parcel lockers

you collect the item within 48 hours and are charged a flat rate (at time of writing) of €3.50 (with the first two deliveries FREE)

You collect your parcel from an automated locker system like this, often at a 24-hour garage or supermarket. Picture courtesy of John Finn @carrigman.

How is it cheaper?

This is best illustrated with an example. If a customer buys a BearExtender or Dovado TINY, the shipping cost at the current exchange rate is €5.29 to a UK address or €12.34 to a Republic of Ireland address. Adding the €3.50 Parcel Motel charge to the UK price makes a saving of €3.55 and in most cases you will get hold of your item more quickly.

Note: this article arose from feedback from our customers who have used both Royal Mail and Parcel Motel. MOVINGWIFI LTD has no commercial relationship with Parcel Motel.

]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/parcel-motel/feed/4EE 4G data plans, a global comparisonhttp://blog.movingwifi.com/ee-4g-dataplans/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/ee-4g-dataplans/#commentsTue, 23 Oct 2012 17:14:52 +0000http://blog.movingwifi.com/?p=791EE (Everything Everywhere), the UK’s first 4G/LTE operator, released their data plans and pricing today. Although the pricing was generally received as reasonable, there was some dismay at how low they have set the monthly data usage limits. There is a suspicion that the initial data plans have been positioned like this to milk the market during their monopoly period. However looking around the globe at other established 4G offerings, I fear that these pricing structures will be here to stay even after the UK 4G market opens up to competition.

There appear to be two disparate pricing models for 4G at large in the world: sensible and fair pricing (as in Portugal and Scandanavia) and the ripoff cartels (as in USA, Germany, Australia and regrettably probably here in the UK).

The table below shows how data plans compare in several countries with 4G/LTE offerings broken down by the monthly limit on data usage. The Americans appear to have invented the word OVERAGE to describe getting charged for exceeding your monthly usage limit. Some operators offer “overage-free” services where your speeds are throttled back after you exceed your monthly limit, but you will not be charged extra. Other operators (including, it seems, EE) will bill their customers for the extra volume used. From what I could determine, the pricing in this table is for monthly mobile broadband contracts (ranging from 12 to 24 months) suitable for use with a 4G modem.

So the Swedes and Norwegians have it pretty good. TMN and Optimus in Portugal advertise their 4G offering as “ilimitado” (unlimited) but the small print specifies a 15GB cap as part of a fair use policy. That’s still a comparatively good deal especially at the current promotional price of just over £8 a month for the first three months. A Portuguese reader reports that the 15GB limitation is always enforced by TMN but Optimus have a more discretionary approach..

]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/ee-4g-dataplans/feed/3Sierra Wireless 320U firmware upgrade: Dovado advisoryhttp://blog.movingwifi.com/telstra-320u-firmware/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/telstra-320u-firmware/#commentsSat, 06 Oct 2012 15:29:02 +0000http://blog.movingwifi.com/?p=779Dovado are currently advising that the latest Telstra firmware for the Sierra Wireless 320U 4G/LTE modem will cause the modem to stop working with their TINY, 4GR and DOMA routers. They will release a fix for this interoperability issue in the next Dovado firmware release, presumably Dovado firmware 6.1.4, which I’d estimate will be available in a matter of days rather than weeks. (The Dovado firmware version at time of writing is 6.1.3.)

]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/telstra-320u-firmware/feed/9Upgrading Dovado TINY to firmware 5.0.17http://blog.movingwifi.com/tiny5017/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/tiny5017/#commentsMon, 26 Mar 2012 16:00:20 +0000http://blog.movingwifi.com/?p=754Customers with the Dovado TINY are advised to use the RESCUE utility to upgrade the router’s firmware beyond version 5.0.16. For this reason, you may notice that the usual ZIP version of the firmware is missing for 5.0.17 on Dovado’s firmware page (see above).

Firmware 5.0.17 addresses an issue causing some but not all TINYs to repeatedly power cycle a few types of USB modems, namely:

ZTE 110,

ZTE 190 and

Option Icon 505

These could be described as “cheapo” modems typically offered on pay-as-you-go deals. Dovado have explained that the power consumed by these modems can be particularly “spiky”, so an upgrade to the TINY’s bootloader was required to make the router more tolerant of this. Upgrading the bootloader is eqivalent to a BIOS upgrade on a PC, so the regular firmware upgrade is not enough.

Upgrade procedure

Download the Upgrader application (available for Windows and Mac) from Dovado’s website

With the TINY connected via ethernet cable to your PC/Mac, hold the TINY’s reset button pressed while connecting the power

Keep the reset pressed for 5 seconds – this puts the router into bootloader mode

Click Rescue to initiate an upload of firmware 5.0.17

Return your ethernet / local area connection to DHCP configuration

Check the router configuration on http://192.168.0.1

How do I set a static IP address on my ethernet?

In Windows XP, right-click your Local Area Connection in your Network Connections and choose Properties. Scroll down through the list of items, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties. Enable the “Use the following IP address” option and enter 192.168.1.128. A subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 will be entered automatically. Click OK to finish.

In Windows 7, click Start and type Network Connections to search programs. Choose View Network Connections and right-click the Local Area Connection to select Properties. Among the items select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. Enable the “Use the following IP address” option and enter 192.168.1.128. A subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 will be entered automatically. Click OK to finish.

When restoring the properties of your ethernet connection, choose the Obtain an IP address automatically option and be sure to select the Obtain DNS server address automatically option below as well, otherwise your internet connection will not work.

Setting a static IP address (Windows XP)

Dovado's rescue application

Rescue successful

Return your TCP/IP properties back to DHCP (Windows XP)

How can I be sure the TINY is in bootloader mode?

There are no obvious signs on the TINY or on the Rescue application that the esoteric press-and-hold manoeuvre on the reset button has successfully put the router into the special bootloader mode. However if it is not, the rescue will fail.

Rescue failure: try press-and-hold manoeuvre again

Static IP address incorrect

]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/tiny5017/feed/2First impressions of Twitter’s redesign of Tweetdeckhttp://blog.movingwifi.com/tweetdeck-redesign/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/tweetdeck-redesign/#commentsTue, 13 Dec 2011 10:04:28 +0000http://blog.movingwifi.com/?p=699By my reckoning, Tweetdeck has been the most popular desktop Twitter client for some time. It has been my tool of choice for my Twitter interactions for nearly three years now. If we compare Twitter to tea, Tweetdeck would be my big old favourite mug. I can drink tea from other vessels from time to time, but it’s never quite the same. Tweetdeck makes it possible to operate multiple accounts and make sense of the constant stream of information flying past.

Earlier this year, Twitter acquired Tweetdeck and about a week ago they launched a complete redesign of the Tweetdeck desktop application, abandoning the Adobe AIR platform in favour of HTML5. So my favourite mug has been replaced with something which looks similar but feels subtly different in the hand. These are my initial observations of Tweetdeck 1.0. (The Adobe AIR Tweetdeck had versions numbered 0.x.)

Absent features

Most disconcerting for long-standing Tweetdeck users is that many features are just not present in the new application.

No translate optionThe language barriers are up again. The incredibly useful translation facility is nowhere to be found.

No filter option on columnsWith so much information flowing through each column, we need a way to quickly find or hide stuff. Now it’s needle and haystack time again.

No integrated list managementOne of Tweetdeck’s former strengths was the ease of list management. I’d be lost without a couple of list columns which help focus on the tweets that are most important to me. The make-up of those lists are changing on a daily basis – Tweetdeck 1.0 gives me no integrated means of managing my lists. I have to resort to web twitter, which often is not convenient in the multi-account scenario.

No support for LinkedIn, Myspace, Foursquare, Buzz accountsTo be honest, this makes no odds to me. I have long since given up trying to aggregate multiple social media accounts in Tweetdeck. It is interesting to note that attempts to integrate all those different additional types of social media have been abandoned, with just Facebook remaining.

Cannot view full-size profile picsI quite liked being able to click on a profile pic and see it full-size. That facility appears to have gone.

No quick-profileSometimes you just want to look at a Twitter profile. The quick-profile feature is absent. Update: I’ve spotted a partial workaround:

Click on any profile.

Then click on Tweets to view their tweets.

You can search for a twitter user – it returns the four closest matches and you can view their tweets.

Not exactly a quick-profile as you only get to see Tweets rather than the full profile stats, but it fills a bit of the functionality hole. Wait a minute, a better workaround is just to search for the username you want in the search box top right on the main screen. With any luck the profile will be mentioned in the search results and you can click on it to get a look at the profile. It’s almost quick.

Replies don’t include hashtags from original tweetMore often than not when you reply to a tweet with a hashtag, you want to keep the hashtag in your tweet. There was an option for this in the previous Tweetdeck, but we’re left to our own typing with the revamped version.

No all-replies option for timelinesTweetdeck relatively recently brought back the ability to view all the tweets from those you follow, including any replies they make to people you don’t follow. This was originally a user setting on Twitter itself but was controversially removed for technical reasons in May 2009 (#fixreplies). I quite enjoyed having this option available again as it provides a valuable method of discovering new interesting people to follow.

No option for follower numbers under avatarI switched this option on before. It’s a personal preference I found useful in some circumstances (e.g. spotting spambots), but it’s not available in Tweetdeck 1.0.

No right-click functionalityI realise that this app has been released for both Windows and Mac OS X. My observations are based solely on the Windows version. There is no right-click menu e.g. copy and paste

No cloud feature on columnsI can understand why. This feature was never implemented properly in my view. The word clouds were always dominated by usernames which made them pretty pointless. This could be a useful feature if implemented sensibly.

No info about API ratesTwitter uses “API rate-limiting” to share out the resources of the service fairly among users. Tweetdeck was always very up-front about showing you the number of API calls you had left on each account and when your allocation would be reset. This information is no longer shown. Maybe Tweetdeck is to be allowed to circumvent the rate-limiting system just like web-twitter?

No “safety net” for shortened linksIn Tweetdeck 0.x, when you click on a bit.ly link for example, you are prompted with some information about the link which may help to avoid getting hacked. There is no such option in Tweetdeck 1.0.

No indication that a profile is protectedThe little padlock usually used to indicate a protected Twitter profile is not displayed. The verified icon is displayed when appropriate.

No warning when attempting to retweet a protected tweetYou cannot retweet a protected user’s tweet as a “native” retweet, you can only perform a quoted retweet. Tweetdeck 0.x handles this situation very gracefully flagging up the potential privacy issue. On Tweetdeck 1.0 you have no idea who is protected and both retweet options are available. A native retweet of a protected user’s tweet will not appear, but you’ll only discover that if you go looking for it.

Annoyances

Less columns per screenYour mileage may vary on this one, but for my 1280×800 screen the old Tweetdeck managed 4 columns per screen, but Tweetdeck 1.0 has changed the column width slightly so that only 3 columns are now displayed.

Block & report are two separate operationsI liked the one-click solution for spambots. You can no longer block and report in one easy operation.

Can’t manage followers in a columnPreviously you could dedicate a column for the followers of a given account if you so wished. I found this pretty essential for keeping a look-out for interesting new followers. In Tweetdeck 1.0 you have no follower-management facilities and are redirected to web-twitter, which may not be appropriate in a multi-account environment.

All links in your timeline now go to browserTweetdeck users have become accustomed to integrated support for image and video services, so the frequent redirection to a browser may cause some irritation. However you soon discover there is inline support for pic.twitter, twitpic, yfrog, instagr.am and lockerz images, which are shown inline when you click on a tweet to examine it more closely. YouTube and flickr are not yet supported in this fashion.

List of tweets on a profile is a cul-de-sacYou don’t get full functional access to a tweet listed from a profile. For instance I would expect to be able to retweet from a list of tweets. I find this very limiting and redirecting to web-twitter hits the usual multi-account issues.

Not clear from profile whether a user follows any of your accountsThis was already a failing in Tweetdeck 0.x, but it made an attempt to display if the user in the profile was a follower of your main account.

Quoted RTs are presented in quotation marks rather than the more prevalent RT syntaxIt is a relief to see that quoted RTs are still permitted, but I think some control over the RT syntax should be an option. I really don’t like the quotation mark style used in Tweetdeck 1.0.

Sender/recipient on DMs is somewhat uncertain/non-intuitiveThe way your DMs are listed has been changed. Rather than the chronological list, we now have a list of users, which probably makes more sense, but a DM count for each user listed would be helpful.

Positives

It’s not looking good for Tweetdeck 1.0 with all those absent features and annoyances. Did I find anything positive to encourage me to make the move?

Not as resource-hungryI was beginning to despair with the Air-based Tweetdeck. When you have a lot of columns on the go, it tends to monopolise your PC’s memory and CPU resources. This was becoming a show-stopper for me. I’m delighted to discover that Tweetdeck 1.0 is much more resource-friendly.

Scales better with many columnsYou can easily push your column total into double-figures and see no great resource-hogging. This was not the case for me with Tweetdeck 0.x.

You can look at @mentions on any user profileThis is a feature I like to use on the common mobile Twitter apps, but has been absent to date on Tweetdeck 0.x.

Notifications are on a column-by-column basisPreviously you managed your notifications all together on the Settings screen, which is a place you don’t want to go too often. On Tweetdeck 1.0, you manage notifications on the column itself, which is much neater.

Nice to see all subsequent replies when viewing a tweetI like how any tweets posted In Reply To the tweet you examine with a click appear automatically. To see any previous tweets in the conversation you have to click “In Reply To”.

Link-shortening can use t.co seamlesslyYou really don’t have to worry about managing link-shortening manually any more. This is a very welcome advance.

Much quicker at startupWith three or four accounts and maybe a dozen columns to load, getting Tweetdeck 0.x started could be a bit of an ordeal. The new application is much quicker to load.

@me column aggregates across multiple accountsI’m not sure I’m totally comfortable with this. The same is not the case, as far as I can tell, for the Home and Inbox columns, which focus on the default account with Facebook posts thrown in just to confuse things.

More retweet info when viewing a tweetYou now get fuller disclosure about how many retweets a tweet has received when you examine it closely with a click.

Autocomplete on usernamesYou grow to appreciate this feature quite quickly. AutoComplete is an option in Tweetdeck 0.x – I never noticed its existence.

Scheduled tweet featureYou can schedule a time for a tweet or DM to be posted, a feature that was available in Hootsuite, but not to my knowledge in Tweetdeck before.Again, I stand corrected on this one. Scheduled tweets have been in Tweetdeck 0.x for some time.

Photo-uploadingYou can upload photos from your PC as you compose a tweet. Photo and video uploading is actually already available in Tweetdeck 0.x. I am more short-sighted than I realised.

Animated avatars workThis could quite easily be listed among the annoyances. Either way, it’s noticeably different.

Bugs

With any application version 1.0, you expect a fair number of bugs. Only a few have come to my attention.

Prone to missing @mentionsReturning to the “mug of tea metaphor”, there isn’t much point in continuing to use a cracked mug with tea leaking out the bottom. I was very concerned to discover that Tweetdeck 1.0 is prone to missing @mentions that are visible in other clients including Tweetdeck 0.x. There may be tweets missing in other columns, but it’s the missing @mentions that stick out like a sore thumb. Definitely a SHOW-STOPPER in my opinion, as not being sure of seeing all your @mentions is unacceptable in a Twitter client.

In reply to and subsequent replies not showing consistentlyThis may be an API issue, but it appears to be impossible to examine tweeted conversations involving protected users among your followees. It is fair to say that Tweetdeck 0.x presented some inconsistent behaviour in this regard, but not to the extent of this bug. Another SHOW-STOPPER in my opinion.

“Retweeted by” shows full name when @username selected in settingsChoosing between full names and usernames is one of the two General Settings available, but it is not honoured on Retweets, where full names are shown.

Facebook posts often incompleteI tried out the Facebook integration and found there were times that Facebook posts made no sense because elements were omitted. Also some are presented as links which don’t do anything or redirect anywhere. Again I remember this sort of behaviour from Tweetdeck 0.x with its Facebook column. I won’t be interacting with Facebook in Tweetdeck so it’s not a major concern for me.

Shrinking support

Despite all the negatives, I’m minded to give this new Tweetdeck some cautious benefit of the doubt in the hope that the missing or poorly implemented functionality will be addressed in future releases. The resource-hogging nature of Tweetdect 0.x was reaching critical proportions for me. What scares me most, however, about the future of Tweetdeck is the apparent lack of any support channel. There is no help or support menu on the application itself and if you visit Tweetdeck.com, a search for the word Support currently finds nothing.

Within the last year, Twitter abandoned its traditional ticket-based support system and now invites users to tweet their support requests. Tweetdeck support used to be very responsive and had a vibrant forum for reporting, discovering and resolving current known issues, but since the acquisition by Twitter, the community-based approach has disappeared. I tweeted @support, @tweetdeck and @richardbarley for some clarification on the support channel(s) for Tweetdeck, but received no responses.

Update: previous Tweetdeck support pages now redirect to Twitter’s Getting Started With Tweetdeck support page, which advises users to follow @Tweetdeck and send any support request via DM. Tweetdeck users are invited to tweet their impressions and suggestions to @feedback, which is for general Twitter feedback so make sure you clearly identify Tweetdeck and your particular flavour in the tweet. I DMed @tweetdeck to enquire whether they publish a list of current known issues and they replied:

No known issues list, but we’re taking everyone’s feedback and using it to help prioritize what comes next. Thanks!

So there you have it – if you’re unhappy with the new Tweetdeck, get your main gripes off your chest by tweeting @feedback about them.

Conclusion

Tweetdeck 1.0 has too many missing features, bugs and annoyances to be a working replacement for Tweetdeck 0.x just yet. It does address the major CPU-hogging failing of its predecessor, so it has potential to keep its users on-board. Twitter needs Tweetdeck as its multiple-account offering and will develop it accordingly. I get the feeling that its future will primarily be shaped by Twitter’s requirements rather than what the users require. Ultimately users will vote with (the source of) their tweets and I hope Twitter realises that its users are no mugs.

What did I miss?

Please post any other absent features, annoyances, bugs and the positives which I have not spotted in the comments below. Thanks for reading all the way to the end.

Update: does v1.1 fix anything?

In the bleak mid-winter 2011, Tweetdeck released v1.1. They no longer publish a ChangeLog it seems, so we’re left to our own deduction to figure out which, if any, of the missing features, annoyances and bugs have been addressed. Hardly any is the short answer.

A major new annoyance confronts the user upon attempted installation of Tweetdeck 1.1. It cannot proceed until you have removed the “previous version”. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES remove Tweetdeck 0.x – it just needs v1.0 removed via the Control Panel. Don’t bother – it’s not worth it. We can only hope they improve this upgrade path in v1.2.

The username vs fullname option has been removed from the general options and both are now displayed above tweets in the timeline, although the full name is given more typographical prominence and the username is used with in reply to and retweeted by. (Bug #3)

Trying to retweet a protected tweet now generates a non-specific error, which is better than doing nothing. (Absent feature #15)

It is now impossible to view the in reply to tweet in any conversation (regardless of protected status). This is a new major show-stopper bug replacing bug #2.

No signs of the missing mentions issue – I’m not sure I can leave this broken client running for long enough to be sure. (Bug #1)

All the other failings remain unresolved.

]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/tweetdeck-redesign/feed/20Direct telephone numbers for Edinburgh GAME storeshttp://blog.movingwifi.com/game-direct-telephone/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/game-direct-telephone/#commentsWed, 07 Dec 2011 13:57:18 +0000http://blog.movingwifi.com/?p=687GAME have an incredibly frustrating centralised automated phone system, making it very difficult to speak directly to a particular store. I wanted to find out which particular stores had a working “scratch repair service” and wasted far too much of my time these last couple of days shouting “NO”, waiting on hold and then being hung up on on the central automated GAME customer service phone number 0871 594 0066.

Today, I discover that certain Edinburgh shopping centres helpfully list the direct dial numbers for the GAME stores therein, so I thought it would be useful to list these for future reference, hopefully saving somebody some time.

Store

Direct dial

Gyle GAME

0131 317 1707

Ocean Terminal GAME

0131 555 4796

St. James Centre GAME

0131 557 8160

127 Princes Street GAME

0131 225 3453

Cameron Toll GAME

0131 666 1661

Fort Kinnaird GAME

0131 669 3129

It bamboozles me why corporate types think it is helpful to customers to list only a centralised number on their “find a store” listings, especially when it is very time-consuming and in my experience not always possible to be put through to a particular store.

I’ve tested some, but not all, of the numbers above, so please leave a comment if you find any errors.

]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/game-direct-telephone/feed/1Australian Power Adapters Now Availablehttp://blog.movingwifi.com/aus-psu/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/aus-psu/#respondThu, 10 Nov 2011 20:26:45 +0000http://movingwifi.com/?p=312UPDATE (11 Nov 2011) This article was written with the (now discontinued) Dovado UMR in mind. However, the same AU-style adapters (12V 1A) will also power the Dovado 3GN. The Dovado 4GR, on the other hand, requires a 12V 2A psu and uses a Blackberry-style power adapter which takes detachable “clips” for different socket styles. Currently we have a stock of AU, EU, US and UK-style clips available. The latest and fastest-selling mobile broadband router from Dovado, the TINY, requires a 5V 2A supply with a much smaller barrel type jack plug and we are currently trying to source a suitable AU-style adapter to power the TINY. Since the arrival of 4G/LTE from Telstra in Australia in late September 2011, the whole family of Dovado routers are proving popular with Australian customers. We’ll do our utmost to provide AU-style power adapters for the 4GR and TINY as soon as possible. Read the discussion of the Dovado TINY on forums.whirlpool.net.au.

UPDATE 2 (21 Feb 2012) Attempts to source manageable quantities of the Dovado-approved power supply for the TINY did not succeed, however Dovado themselves have placed a large order with the manufacturer. Unfortunately there is a long lead-time measured in months rather than weeks, so in the meantime, any TINYs shipped to Australia (as of 21 Feb 2012) will by supplied with tight-fitting travel adapter as a workaround.

A batch of Australian-style power adapters (Type I) arrived with today’s shipment of Dovado UMRs. The 12V power adapters are suitable for both the Dovado UMR and Dovado 3GN, so we can now supply customers in the following countries:

American Samoa

Argentina

Australia

Brazil

China

Cook Islands

East Timor

Fiji

Kiribati

Nauru

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

Tajikistan

Tonga

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Western Samoa

With Australia in mind, Dovado have recently* added supported for the ZTE MF636BP and Maxon BP3-USB modems as supplied by Bigpond.

If you enter AR670W into the dd-wrt router database, it currently states that the latest version supported is v24 preSP2 [beta] Build: 14896. However testing this configuration produced very unsatisfactory results exclusively with Apple wifi clients used: a Macbook, iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch. Wireless connection from these clients was successfully established and maintained, but the internet connectivity would stop functioning after a period measured in minutes. Stopping and re-starting the WiFi interface on the clients restored internet connectivity until the next interruption.

I tried a few configuration adjustments to resolve this show-stopping issue, namely:

Reduced the beacon interval from 100ms to 50ms

Changed the channel from Auto to a specific channel with least interference in my environment

Experimented with different wireless modes: Mixed, N/G-mixed, G-only

Toggled the Use DNSmasq option on and off for DHCP

None of these modifications made the slightest bit of difference.

Several posters on the Airlink101 thread on the dd-wrt forum alluded to experiencing similar problems, but there wasn’t really a coherent solution put forward until pages 44-45 of the thread where the consensus coming through is to upgrade to a later build of the firmware: Build 16214.

Happily this build works a treat – no more frustrating outages.

]]>http://blog.movingwifi.com/solving-apple-ddwrt-ar670w/feed/4The BBC’s crowd-sourced mobile broadband map of UKhttp://blog.movingwifi.com/bbc-map/
http://blog.movingwifi.com/bbc-map/#respondThu, 25 Aug 2011 09:13:10 +0000http://blog.movingwifi.com/?p=656In July 2011, the BBC invited Android phone users to participate in an experiment to gather data on mobile broadband coverage. Around 44,600 people contributed to the crowd-sourced data gathering by granting an app permission to track the level of their data signal over three weeks.

The results are published as an interactive map showing tiles approximately 200m x 200m in size coloured green for 3G, purple for 2G and dark grey for no coverage. You can filter the map by mobile operator. Given the self-selecting nature of the sample, you will find many areas with no colouring signifying no measurements were taken and in some areas some of the operators may not be represented.

The Android app used was provided by Epitiro, the independent firm used by OfCom to provide data on mobile broadband provision in the UK. In Sep-Dec 2010 Epitiro conducted a much more systematic analysis of mobile internet provision in the UK and OfCom published the results in their report Measuring Mobile Broadband in the UK. The reports tells us what we already know: mobile broadband is extremely variable and not as fast as fixed broadband. The quantitative detail in the report may be of more value than the BBC’s crowd-sourced experiment.